Give before you get. With a book.

As a consultant or business owner, you know that potential customers don’t just wake up one day and instantly become your customers. No, customer acquisition (and retention) is a process, a carefully-choreographed dance. To acquire the best customers, you need an intentional process of nurturing your potential customer and giving him or her what they need before your business relationship can blossom.

And that’s where writing a book comes in. Writing a book is an excellent way to nurture your clients and help them on the journey to becoming the clients you’ve been looking for.

Books Build Trust

On the street, do you stop to say hello to strangers? If you’re like most people, you only take the time to greet and chat with the people you know. Writing a book, however, expedites the getting-to-know-you process and helps turn more cold-shouldered people into friendlier prospects. Writing a book gives your potential customers the information they need to want to say hello back to you.

Writing a book positions you as the expert and demonstrates that you have the knowledge and personal qualities that the potential customer needs. Your book will shine light on your philosophies, your personality and on your methods. Readers will become more familiar with you, will increasingly view you as an authority and a problem solver, and will warm up to what your business has to offer.

To really drive the point home to potential customers, do one or more of these things in your book: Show potential customers that you understand their pain points. Show them that you have a story that they can relate to. Show them that you too made mistakes and then learned how to do things the right way. Show them that you have valuable information that will make their personal or professional live better or easier.

Whatever your specialty is, people are simply more likely to hire consultants and businesses that they trust. And the first step in gaining their trust is making yourself known to them and helping them find out what you’re really about.

Educated Clients Are Better Clients

People don’t know what they don’t know. Most people limit their purchases to things that they want, need and know enough about to buy – and this includes your service offerings. Do people know that they need you, and know in what way? Educated clients are qualified clients!

By reading your book, potential clients are doing their research, educating themselves and letting you guide them. And that’s what you want. You want to shape their understanding of the scope of the process.

An educated client has the right expectations. They understand what’s possible and what’s not. What you can do for them and what you can’t. They will be in a better position of knowing what to expect – from you, from others, from their problems and from their solutions. Your potential client will know which questions to ask you (or not ask you, since the book will probably already answer many of their questions).

Educated clients have cleared the initial hurdles. If after reading your book they’re coming back for more, then chances are good that you’ve just converted a satisfied reader into another paying client.

The Crown Jewel of Content Marketing

A few months ago I received a free sample-sized bottle of a rose water facial toner. At the time, I had zero intention of purchasing this product, or anything like it. I put it on a couple of times when my my skin felt a bit dry; it didn’t make sense to me to waste it. And then I was hooked. That rose water is part of my daily ritual now because I decided I really liked it. Content marketing is the same way.

Content marketing gives potential customers the information they need. They may not need it at the time, but the information is there for them all the same. Then when they’re ready to capitalize on the information and take it to the next level, like hiring your business’s services, you and your book are perfectly poised to satisfy their wants and needs – instantly.

Some business owners market and sell their book to a wide audience, as one of the first steps in their sales funnel. Here the book serves as a complete solution for some readers, but for other readers, the book serves as a stepping stone to the business owner’s services and other offerings. Other business owners may offer a physical copy of their book for free to potential customers that they’ve previously qualified in some way (for example, attendees to a class or presentation they’ve given) in order to help close the deal. But whichever approach you take, writing a book is a great way to nurture your potential customers, build better relationships with them and close more sales.

An Experienced Publisher for Professionals, Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

Have you thought about establishing yourself as an expert among a wider audience and attracting new customers while you sleep? Dudley Court Press helps consultants and business owners to propel their businesses forward by sharing their knowledge through writing and publishing a book. For more information about our publishing programs, please get in touch at info@DudleyCourtPress.com.

Are you interested in Self-Publishing your book? Let Dudley Court Press help with our Assisted Self-Publishing Program.

Also, check out our some of our online coaching programs including Writer’s Sprint, Memoir Writing Made Easy and Aspiring Author to Published Pro.